Saturday, August 31, 2013

Wentworth Miller, 41 years old, born in Oxfordshire (England), he is an actor, model, screenwriter and producer.

He rose to stardom following his role as Michael Scofield in the Fox television series Prison Break, since 2005 to 2009. His performance in the show earned him a 2005 Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series.

As guest actor, he also appeared in other series, some films and music videos. Currently, he made his screenwriting debut with the 2013 dramatic thriller film Stoker, which stars Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska.

Miller recently came out after being invited to attend the St. Petersburg International Film Festival in Russia. He revealed he's gay to refuse the assistance to the Russian Film Festival because as a homosexual he thought he had to decline the invitation. Of course, his not participation in that festival is a protest for Russian anti-gay legislation.

He explained that: "I am deeply troubled by the current attitude toward and treatment of gay men and women by the Russian government. The situation is in no way acceptable, and I cannot in good conscience participate in a celebratory occasion hosted by a country where people like myself are being systematically denied their basic right to live and love openly".

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Australian Kim Smith is an emerging electro-pop singer, and award winning cabaret performer, known for his Weimar-era inspired works that juxtapose authentic musical material with stylistic takes on current popular tunes.

From his latest electro-pop album Nova, available on iTunes, he has performed a new clip directed by photographer Mauricio A. Rodriguez: Jealous.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Dozens of same-sex couples have married in Santa Fe County, in U.S. state of New Mexico, this Friday. Santa Fe County is New Mexico’s third most populous county, and the city of Santa Fe is the state capital.

A judge ruled on a lawsuit brought by two Santa Fe men wishing to marry, and issued an order directing the clerk’s office in Santa Fe County to issue licenses to gay and lesbian couples.

The news of the court order has sent a lot of same-sex couples to the Santa Fe County administrative building to ask a marriage license. Obeying the judge's order, the county clerk began issuing licenses to gay and lesbian couples and also held a mass wedding in the county office.

By the end of the day, 49 marriage licenses to same-sex couples had been issued.

New Mexico's legislation doesn't explicitly prohibit same-sex marriage but, sadly, a group of Republican legislators is planning to file a lawsuit to prevent it.

Over 300 people protested in front of Russian Embassy in Madrid (Spain), rejecting anti-gay Russian laws and asking to Russian authorities to stop the attacks and abuses against LGBT people. The demonstrators also asked to Spanish Government to react and protest for the homophobic situation in Russia.

Óscar Olmo, promoter of the protest through Facebook, said: "When we saw the news from Russia, we thought we had to do something. So we created a Facebook event calling for a rally. We did not expect to get as many people". And he added: "We ask to Russian state repeal the law because is fueling homophobia in that country. There are already two fatalities and, if the situation remains the same, I'm sure many more will be in the short term".

During the rally, many of the attendees decided to kiss as a sign of protest. Without incidents, at the end of the protest, their promoters went into the embassy and delivered to the secretary a statement with their claims. The official committed to send the document to the Russian authorities in Moscow.

Friday, August 23, 2013

Ten thousand people attended a demonstration in Copenhagen (Denmark) against the Russian laws banning the promotion of non traditional relationships and the adoption of Russian children by foreign same-sex couples.

The movement, called To Russia With Love Denmark, asked for action and condemnation of the anti-gay laws and stigmatization of LGBT people in Russia.

Organisers of the protest had expected two thousand people to the rally, but five times that number took the streets in the Danish capital.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

A pedestrian crossing outside the Russian embassy in Oslo has been painted in with rainbow colours last night, the latest in a string of international acts to protest Russia’s anti-gay law.

A similar act happened in Sweden last week, when gay rights supporters re-painted the zebra crossing outside the Russian embassy in Stockholm in the colours of the rainbow, to show their reject to the Russian law banning gay propaganda.

Some cities have had rainbow crossing walks before, like Vancouver, Sidney, Utrecht or Tel Aviv, to support LGBT people.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

The Human Rights Office of the United Nations (HRO) has rejected the Russia’s law banning gay propaganda, and has urged the Kremlin to repeal this law.

"Such laws form the basis for standing and regular harassment, and even arbitrary detention, and help create a climate of fear for anyone working on advancing the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people", said Claude Cahn, adviser of the HRO during a meeting in Kiev, Ukraine.

He also asked Moldava to repeal a similar law and advised Ukraine not to pass a nearly identical proposal in their parliament. And he added: "The restrictions introduced in parts of Eastern Europe are inherently discriminatory in both intent and effect. The limitations they place on the exercise of rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly and their impact on the work of human rights defenders".

UN has spoken out, what will do the International Olympic Committee? And the rest of international organizations and governments?

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

To wear nail polish in rainbow colors is an unacceptable act of gay propaganda. That is not the opinion of the Russians... but the Swedes.

Emma Green Tregaro, the Swedish high jumper who painted her fingernails in rainbow colors to support gay rights at the World Championships in Moscow, has took the field with a bright red in her nails this time.

Green Tregaro said the Swedish officials of track and field federation asked her to "please respect the rules" and change the color of her nails because that rainbow gesture could be a violation of the competition's code of conduct. For this reason, she decided to paint them in an intense red color, the color of love.

After Green Tregaro's incident, the head of Sweden’s Olympic Committee, Stefan Lindeberg, has ruled that political protests against Russia’s anti-gay legislation will not be tolerated at the Sochi Olympics next year.

Seriously, is the nails color ruled in any competition's code of conduct? And do all Swedish people think such as their official?

Sunday, August 18, 2013

You've sure already seen this symbol several times: two parallel pink lines on a red square background. It has become the logo of support for gay marriage.

But where did it come from?

This symbol was created by marketing director Anastasia Khoo of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). The pink and red logo is a derivative of the HRC's everyday logo, a yellow equal sign on a blue background. But she decided to use pink as a gay color and red as the color of love. Besides, it is very simple, easily recognizable and known everywhere.

HRC first posted the new symbol to its Facebook page, where it attracted some big-name net denizens, who had million Facebook and Twitter followers. Things took off from there.

Everybody liked the gay marriage symbol, and it was used massively by same-sex marriage supporters across the world. Surprisingly, it has also spawned a lot of meme offshoots. For example, one includes two horizontal strips of bacon, other has two rings or uses the rainbow colors.